Category: sanding

Hi Everyone! Sorry I’ve been a little MIA this week, it’s been crazy town around here! Between work, extra work hours, grad work, working on the bathroom, and life in general, B and I added looking at apartments to the mix. But we think we found “the place” yesterday afternoon! We’re crunching numbers again this today and if all goes well will hopefully be making a deposit in the next few days! Soooo exciting, but the idea of packing already stresses me out!

The bathroom is starting to look so good! I can’t wait to share more of it with you guys this weekend. The next step in the process was patching up the walls, so this post will show you what we did!

First off, if you look back at the previous posts, there were all kinds of patches on the wall where paint was already chipping off. So the first order of business was to go through the whole wall, with a little putty knife, and chip away at the paint. I wasn’t concerned about getting off all the paint, I just didn’t want to paint over loose paint and have it start peeling off right away! So here are a couple shots of B, hard at work, with the tedious task of chipping away paint in the awkward, hard to reach, areas. What a trooper!

Next on the list was sanding down the walls. We paid close attention to the seams where no paint met paint, because we wanted it to be as even as possible. This way, hopefully, once everything is repainted it will look nice and even. We also did a light sand over the whole wall to make sure new paint would stick alright. Fortunately my dad had this handy dandy doo-dad which essentially looked like a swiffer. It had a rotating pad at the top, covered with sand paper, and a broom handle which made sanding the walls a cinch! I think it will really help when it comes time to do the ceiling and floor as well. It made our arms feel a lot better than a hand sander would have! Here’s another snap shot of B hard at work:

Here’s a quick look at what the walls look like with the paint all chipped in all the loose areas, and everything sanded down:

The next step was to give everything a nice clean with soap and water. It was important to get rid of all the extra dust and dirt, otherwise our spackle wouldn’t adhere correctly.

Here is a reminder of what some of the major cracks that needed repair looked like:

We grabbed our putty knives, and tub of spackle and got to work. We ended up using the MH Ready Patch I had used to repair the window sill:

We squished it into all the cracks, and I also did a coat around the areas that were bare wall. I know that we sanded down the paint to try and make the seam even, but I thought this would help ensure that everything looked smooth once it was painted over. Here is what things started to look like patched:

The cracks above the window:

And the one above the sink:

Looking better already! Aside from the cracks we also filled in any nail holes that were kicking around. As well as the holes that remained from the towel bar I removed.

We let everything dry (follow the instructions on the spackle) sanded it all down, and then added a second coat to some of the larger cracks. Everything dried, and was sanded again…and is now ready to be primed. Goooood bye pink walls!

I’m hoping to have a post up later this weekend with the progress of how things looked with a couple coats of primer. Can’t wait to show you all more! Hope you all get to enjoy some of the nice weather we’re (finally) having! Happy weekend!!

Oh lordy, this is only the beginning! As you saw in my last post, I started to tackle my ugly bathroom. Now that all the walls are de-wall papered and cleaned, it was time to start patch work. I decided to tackle the window sills first.

I started this process by using a small putty knife to chip away at the paint that was already flaking off

That left me with huge spots of bare wood, and the rest was still covered in grimy old paint:

Now I had to decide where to go from here. I could just clean it up and cover in a couple coats of primer, but I was afraid that would look bumpy and rough, especially in the spots where it was down to the bare wood. My next option was to sand everything down, but that would all have to be done manually since there were so many small and awkward areas…no thanks. Or there are paint strippers. But I was really hesitant about this one since the best strippers are heavily chemical based, and I would be working inside a tiny bathroom with only the one window for ventilation.

So off I went to my local home depot and discussed with the men who actually know what their doing! Home I came with a couple ideas. First step was a spray on TSP. This not only helps clean off all the grime, but it de-glosses the paint, which helps new paint or agents stick better.

Here I am, ready to go! I couldn’t find my goggles…so stunner shades would have to do 🙂 This is odor less, but till chemical based, so wear the gloves and glasses! oh…and clean the mirror…duh.

The process is really easy…spray on, wait a few minutes (longer for bigger stains), and wipe off with a clean/dry cloth. I cut up a couple of old t-shirts. Here is how it looks with the TSP on…

And here is how it looks once it has been wiped off. The pictures don’t show a huge difference, but the paint is no longer shiny, and all the dirt and stains wiped right off. Nice!

The next thing the local home depot men suggested was MH Ready Patch. This is like a spackle, that can cover large areas.

So I grabbed my putty knife, and started spreading on a generous layer of the Ready Patch. Smells a little bit, but not too much! Just remember that things don’t need to be too even or smooth, because you will be sanding it down later.

For the smaller to reach areas, like where the wood connects to the wall, I just used my finger to spread the patch in place. For areas where the bare wood was showing, or nail holes, I added a little extra patch to make things even. Here’s what it looks like while it is drying:

The can said it took 30 minutes to dry, but I found that I had to wait much longer than that. When you sand the dry Patch it will kick up a TON of dust, so I went off in search of the proper goggles and a mask. No one said you would look good while working!

Here it is all sanded down! I can’t believe how much smoother and better it looks!

I will be going back and adding a second layer to a couple spots. But overall it feels almost completely smooth to the touch! It will take me a ton of time to get to all the inside pieces of wood, particularly around the glass. And the next step will be all the baseboards and the door frame….but I’m really happy with how the window came out!

Yay for trying new things! Off to go shower all the powder outta my hair!

Everyone ready for the big reveal? I teased you all yesterday when I showed how to make a quatrefoil stencil, and now I’m ready to show you how I used it!

First up it was time to sand the shelves. I used a power sander, cause there were too many shelves for me to tackle it by hand. But if you don’t have a power hand sander, a good old block and piece of sand paper would be just fine:

Once everything was sanded, I wiped them down with a wet towel, to get rid of all the saw dust, and let them thoroughly dry:

Once everything was completely dry, I used 2 coats of primer, whatever I had lying around the house was good enough!

After I let the primer completely dry overnight (follow the back of the can for drying times) I proceeded with two coats of paint. Again, I was lucky enough to have white paint on hand at home, and didn’t need to purchase anything. Love that!

I again let this dry over night to make sure it was good and ready. Now it’s time to stencil! (Refer to my post from yesterday about how to create a stencil). Because I wanted my darker paint to be the lines, I decided to trace with a pencil. If you are using your contrasting paint to fill in the middle, go ahead and paint right over the stencil.

I laid down my stencil, and then used a couple pieces of painters tape to make sure it was securely in place:

I then used a pencil and traced all of the lines. I would then peel off the tape, and move my stencil up or to the side, and continue tracing, until the whole board was traced:

Once everything was dry, I went over it again with a second coat of paint.

The next thing I did is completely optional, but I thought it gave my shelves a nice pop. While perusing my local craft store one day (Michael’s for anyone curious) I found some cute shelf liner for only $3. Seemed like a good deal to me!

The liner has a convenient grid on the back, so it is easy to cut straight lines, and make the right size. Make sure to measure your shelf before cutting! This is super sticky, so watch out! I cut the size I needed, peeled off the back, and stuck it onto my shelf. I then used an exacto knife to trim the edges off:

I then used a wet paper towel to smooth down the liner, and my rubber roller to help ease out any air bubbles:

Make sure you trim your liner so that it is not covering the seam, this will be important when you are putting your shelf together:

The final step was to use the cute roller Valspar sent with the sample, to paint the top of my shelf, and cover the edges. I liked this look better than just the plain white, but it’s totally up to you!

Once everything was good and dry, it was time to start assembly. I have a lovely blister on the inside of my finger from the screw driver. Ahhh the price of beauty!

I again chose to use the circle stickers that came with the shelf to cover up the screws. Once I painted over them you could barely even see them.

Here she is all put together. The baskets are empty for now…but not for long!

What do you think? I’m loving how it all came together! Time consuming, yes, but so worth it! The best part is, I only used about 1/3 of the paint sample, so there is plenty left for the second shelf. I do have a matching shelf…but I’ve only gotten as far as priming, so it will be a while before she is up and running.